Princess Sarah, a former actor and dancer from West Virginia who learned that she is African royalty, will be honored at the 2023 NBCC. Her story is nothing less than remarkable. Her extraordinary journey has been featured on CNN, GMA, NBC, BBC among numerous other outlets worldwide, which trended No. 1 globally in over 60 countries. And having spoken with her, I can tell you she is a delightful, intelligent, energetic and joyful presence that will capture all of your […]

Kem is the Grammy-nominated R&B artist whose sultry sounds have made him a worldwide sensation. His story is of more than of his immense talent. Rather, Kem’s journey from Detroit to the spotlight was turbulent, to say the least, as he overcame abject poverty, depression, homelessness and drug and alcohol addiction to somehow ascend to a revered place as one of America’s most celebrated artists with five No. 1 songs among his platinum and gold records. He has documented his […]

Kimberla Lawson Roby is the New York Times bestselling author whose books are is fueled by keen storytelling. Her latest, Sister Friends Forever follows her legacy of engaging stories that forces you to turn page after page. She’s built a faithful national reading audience that waits with anticipation of her next release. Kim is also a past recipient of the NBCC’s Walter Mosley Author of Distinction Award. Kim is also the Founder of Successful Women of Faith – The Sisterhood (an online community for women), and […]

Eriq La Salle was in the 1988 comedy smash film, Coming To America, when he played the irritating and arrogant heir to the Sol Glo hair franchise opposite Eddie Murphy. Since then, he’s established himself as an accomplished, award-winning actor on the NBC medical drama ER, among other roles, and as executive producer and director of several shows, including Chicago PD. Educated at Juilliard and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, La Salle also is the author of several critically […]

Bernice L. McFadden is the author of ten critically acclaimed novels including Praise Song for the Butterflies (Long listed for the 2019 Women’s Prize in Fiction ) The Book of Harlan (winner of a 2017 American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction) Sugar, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, The Warmest December, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012) and Glorious . She is a four-time […]

Sadeqa Johnson, is the award-winning and NY TImes best-selling author who won the 2018 National Book Club Conference Fiction Book of the Year Award for And Then There Was Me, will be featured at our 2023 weekend of Literary Bliss, July 27-30 at the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead. Sadeqa’s brilliance has been magnified by her latest amazing work, The House of Eve, which became an instant New York Times Best Seller. This work was described by actress Reese Witherspoon (who selected it for her book […]

Dr. Ian K Smith is the former host of the Emmy Award-winning syndicated daytime talk show, The Doctors and is the former medical correspondent for NBC News and for NewsChannel 4 in New York, where he filed reports for NBC Nightly News and The Today Show. He transitioned into a New York Times No. 1 bestselling author, penning 21 books between works on medicine and health and crime novels. Dr. Smith attended the 2005 NBCC when he wrote his first novel, The Blackbird Papers. His upcoming book is the […]

ReShonda Tate Billingsley is the national bestselling author of more than 53 books, using her passion to bring stories to life, including in her most recent work, the must-read, Miss Pearly’s Girls: A Captivating Story of Family Healing. ReShonda writes both adult and teen fiction, as well as nonfiction. Her sophomore novel, Let the Church Say Amen, was made into a film directed by actress Regina King, and produced by TD Jakes and Queen Latifah. ReShonda made her on-screen movie debut in the […]

Kwame Alexander’s The Door of No Return is the first book in a searing, breathtaking trilogy that tells the story of a boy, a village, and the epic odyssey of an African family. In his village in Upper Kwanta, 11-year-old Kofi loves his family, playing oware with his grandfather and swimming in the river Offin. He’s warned though, to never go to the river at night. His brother tells him ”There are things about the water you do not know. “ Like what? Kofi asks. “The beasts.” […]

Renown artist Charly Palmer and his wife, the dynamic sociologist Karida Brown have created a new book will be the must-have for all Black families: The New Brownies Book: A Love Letter to Black Families. You can preorder it here or by clicking on the photo above. They wanted to share about the book in their own words. It is below: A Love Letter By Karida L. Brown and Charly Palmer Dear Reader: Within these pages we have set out to invoke the spirit of W.E.B. Du Bois’s original Brownies Book magazine. Like […]

Avery Goode is an Amazon best-selling author, who has penned nine Goode books, with a promise of more to come. Her latest, You, Me & She, is a typical page-turner. The synopsis: For recent divorcee Sophia Redding, dating sucked. In her opinion, the dating pool was full of piss. But just as she was beginning to think that she would never find love again, she meets her ideal man. By the time he reveals a secret about his life that […]

Tonya Comer has been named one of the Top 20 African American Interior Designers in the United States by the Black Interior Designers Network. She is principal of the boutique interior design firm, Tonya Comer Interiors. Her award-winning product designs have sold around the globe. She has also won awards for the roles she’s served as a community and business thought leader. As a global transformational leader, she serves as a speaker and workshop presenter helping people design their lives. […]

Terry J. Benton-Walker is the national bestselling author of Blood Debts, his magical young adult contemporary fantasy debut, which is out now from Tor Teen in the US and Hodderscape in the UK. Here is some of the praise Terry’s book has received: Terry J. Benton-Walker’s contemporary fantasy debut, Blood Debts, is “an extravaganza from start to finish” (Chloe Gong) with powerful magical families, intergenerational curses, and deadly drama in New Orleans. Most Anticipated from Buzzfeed, BookPage, Nerd Daily, and more. Featured […]

Tananarive Due is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. Her stories have been featured on LeVar Burton Reads and Realm, and she is an executive producer on Shudder’s documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. Due and her husband/collaborator, Steven Barnes, wrote for Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone and for Shudder’s anthology film Horror Noire. They also cowrote the Black Horror graphic novel The Keeper, illustrated by Marco Finnegan. Due and Barnes cohost a podcast, Lifewriting: Write […]

Ruth P. Watson is the author of Blackberry Days of Summer, An Elderberry Fall, Cranberry Winter, and Strawberry Spring. A musical stage play, Blackberry Daze, is based on her debut novel. Her new book, A Right Worthy Woman, In the vein of The Engineer’s Wife and Carolina Built, an inspiring novel based on the remarkable true story of Virginia’s Black Wall Street and the indomitable Maggie Lena Walker, the daughter of a formerly enslaved woman who became the first Black woman to establish and preside over a bank […]

Cecilia Rabess, a former data scientist at Google and Goldman Sach, is a new whose debut novel, Everything’s Fine, is a painfully funny, poignant, heartfelt novel that doesn’t just ask will they, but…should they? The book is is described as “a subtle, ironic, wise, state-of-the-nation novel, sharp enough to draw blood, hidden inside a moving, intimate, sincere and very real love story–or vice versa.” Quick synopsis: When Jess lands a job as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, she’s less than thrilled to learn she’ll […]

Tricia Hersey is an artist, poet, theologian and community organizer. She is the founder of The Nap Ministry, an organization that examines rest as a form of resistance by curating sacred spaces for the community to rest via Collective Napping Experiences, immersive workshops, performance art installations, and social media. Her book, Rest Is Resistance, is rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism. With captivating storytelling and practical advice, all delivered in Hersey’s lyrical voice and informed by […]

Jessica Wilson, MS, RDN (she/her) is a co-creator of the Amplify Melanated Voices challenge that went viral in 2020 and author of the power book, Her book, It’s Always Been Ours; Rewriting the Story of Black Women’s Bodies, is an anthem to weaponizing joy and build community. She is a clinical dietitian, consultant and author, whose experiences navigating the dietetic fields as a Black, queer dietitian have been featured on public radio shows and in print media, including the New York Times, Bustle, […]

John Blake, an award-winning journalist tells the story of his quest to reconcile with his white mother and the family he’d never met—and how faith brought them all together in his compelling book, More Than I Imagined: What A Black Man Discovered About The White Mother He Never Knew, which releases on May 2.   A Howard University graduate who is a senior writer and producer at CNN.com, where he writes about race, religion, and politics, John grew up in a notorious Black neighborhood […]

Helen Elaine Lee is the accomplished author of gripping books, including The Serpent’s Gift, Water Marked and the Unlocked Room—each a stunning literary accomplishment. Her latest, Pomegranate, has been lauded as a gift to those who love compelling stories from the first page to the last. Educated at Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Ms Lee’s new book is dazzling.   It is described as a complex portrayal of queer Black womanhood and marginalization in America: a story of loss, […]

Kevin Powell, who has been a fixture in the literary world for more than 30 years and has been an authority on Black culture for decades, writing brilliantly and thoughtfully about all facets of Black life for publications like Vibe magazine and in his 15 books. His latest, Grocery Shopping With My Mother, is another thought-provoking but sensitive read. The Jersey City product of a single mother, absent father, horrific poverty, and violence, studied at Rutgers University through the Educational Opportunity Fund, […]

J.B. Vample is an author who fell in love with the written word at a young age. While in her final year of high school, she came up with the concept of her new adult fiction series The College Life Series. After years of writing only for herself, J.B. published her debut novel College Life 101: Freshman Orientation in 2015. Since then, she has written and published the other eight installments of TCLS. Her latest contemporary romance standalone Right as Reign, another guaranteed page-turner, is her tenth […]

Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of the legendary Malcolm X,  is an author and professor who promotes higher education for at-risk youth, interfaith dialogue to build bridges between cultures for young leaders of the world, and she participates in international humanitarian delegations. She has penned five books, including the revealing Growing Up X and The Awakening of Malcolm X, a novel with Tiffany D. Jackson. She served as a member of the U.S. Delegation that accompanied President Bill Clinton to South Africa to […]

Joseph Earl Thomas is a writer from Frankford whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in VQR, N+1, Gulf Coast, The Offing, and The Kenyon Review. He has an MFA in prose from The University of Notre Dame and is a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania. An excerpt of his memoir, Sink, won the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize and he has received fellowships from Fulbright, VONA, Tin House, Kimbilio, & Breadloaf, though he is now the […]

James Hannaham is a renowned writer, performer, and visual artist. His novel Delicious Foods (2015), which addresses human trafficking, won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and was named one of Publishers Weekly‘s top 10 books of the year. The New York Times called it an “ambitious, sweeping novel of American captivity and exploitation.” His latest novel, Didn’t Nobody Give A Sh*t About Carlotta, is another gem and was chosen by the New York Times as one of the top 20 books of 2022 to read. It has […]

Ebony Evans is the founder and president of EyeCU Reading and Social Network book club in Detroit, who has penned her first novel, Dead To Me, which has been lauded for its high drama and realistic storylines. Her book features the impact of family secrets that come to light and how they create chaos within loved ones. Ebony Evans is an enthusiastic reader, reviewer, and self-proclaimed “book nerd” at heart! In addition to reading and being a devoted wife and mother, Ebony […]

Nina Foxx is the author award-winning author, playwright who founded The Writing Sisters Summit Writing and Yoga Retreat. He page-turning books include Momma: Gone, And You’d Better Not Tell, No Woman Needs a Husband and Seven Days A Week and her most recent, Island Secrets, a gripping mystery centered in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. Learn more about Nina and her fantastic works at http://www.ninafoxx.com

Monica Walters is the romance author best known as the queen of country hood love stories. As an Amazon best-selling author, with multiple award nominations and 2021 winner of Literary Jewels Literary Awards for Best Romance Author, Monica has always had a passion for creating different worlds with words. Starting with poetry, writing has always been a constant in Monica’s life. The interest began in her teenage years, being in love for the first time. Her love for writing has only […]

Myisha Battle is a certified clinical sexologist and sex and dating coach, educator, and speaker. Her expertise has been featured in the Washington Post, New York Magazine’s The Cut, Refinery29, Oprah Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Playboy, Nylon, and many other outlets. Her book, This Is Supposed To Be Fun: How To Find Joy in Hooking Up, Settling Down and Everything in Between, is a must-read that can transform lives. She lives in San Francisco, California. Learn more about her at www.myishabattle.com

Denene Millner has been a force in the literary arena for more than 25 years as an award-winning journalist, author of 31 critically acclaimed books, creator of prestigious award-winning children’s book publishing company, Denene Millner Books, podcaster, parenting expert and more. At every level, Denene has thrived, reaching NY Times best-selling plateau and, more importantly, a revered place as a respected voice of Blackness, Black women’s empowerment and an advocate for Black girls. Now, her first novel will be released in […]

Stacy Spikes is an award-winning entrepreneur, co-founder and co-chairman of MoviePass, founder of the Urbanworld Film Festival, and a former film marketing executive and producer. Named by USA Today as one of the 21 most influential Blacks in technology, Spikes is also the founder and CEO of PreShow Interactive, a branded content app that rewards gamers for watching long-form video content. In his senior executive roles at Motown Records, Sony Music Entertainment, and Miramax, he worked some of the biggest names in entertainment, including […]

Angela Marshall, MD, FACP, is the founder of Comprehensive Women’s Health, Inc., a primary care practice for women with two locations in the Washington, DC area. A Board-Certified Internist and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, she is an expert on all forms of bias in health care and how they affect both individuals and our society at large. Throughout her medical career, Dr. Marshall has impacted the lives of thousands of women by promoting a style of medical […]

Vanessa Riley made time for renaissance fairs, and period novels and films while obtaining her Ph.D in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Specialty RWA Chapters: The Beaumonde, and the Georgia Chapters, as well as the Historical Novel Society. Vanessa also juggles her military hubby, mothering a teen, and speaking at women’s events. Visit her at www.vanessariley.com. Murder In Westminister The first in a vibrant, inclusive new historical mystery series by acclaimed author Vanessa Riley portrays […]

Lamont Gant is a multi-talented, award winning, American independent film director and author. His films and novels, mostly sci-fi thrillers, have been screened and featured in film/book festivals all over the world. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Lamont became interested iin filmmaking after moving to Atlanta, where he was exposed to the music, books and film industries. In 2015, after making his feature film debut with Used To Temporary Happiness (2013), Annulment (2015) and No Time For Love (2015), Lamont founded […]

After a successful 15-year career in publishing, Carol M. Mackey made the transition to audiobooks in October 2017. As Senior Acquisitions Editor at Recorded Books, she is responsible for licensing high quality fiction and non-fiction titles for audio. Carol enjoys bringing in books by bestselling and established authors, but her greatest joy is discovering new and upcoming authors and helping them build their brands in the audio space. As the former Editorial Director for Black Expressions, the largest direct to […]

Keith Kareem Williams is the author of over 21 books and 7 screenplays. He self-published his first novel, “Water Flows Under Doors,” in 2004 and took six years to finish his sophomore title. Here is the synopsis of his lates, The Higher Learning Curve: Marlon and Victoria are two young college students who are both trying to decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives while also trying to figure out what they’re doing with each […]

Monica Michelle Cooper is the self-published author of the novels Lucky No. 5 and the forthcoming Lucky 2 Have You. After publishing her debut book Monica gained a desire to learn as much as she could about the world of self-publishing. And she did. Armed with this deep knowledge in every facet of self-publishing, Monica used her skills to consult on many publications, adding to her the services offered by her company, Novelista Publishing. She has collaborated with a host […]

Marlon McCaulsky is an author and screenplay writer of fiction, romance, and science fiction. He is known for his novels about contemporary African-American life, including the recent release, If I Were Your Woman. Its synopsis: What happens when you fall in love with the right man at the wrong time? Rashida Haughton finds out firsthand when she meets Alonzo Hall. But the problem is, a relationship with Alonzo could destroy a lifelong friendship with Joyce Roland, her best friend. Denise […]

Tracey Brown is a new author from Annapolis, Maryland who published her first children’s book in 2022. Grandma’s Coming Over celebrates the relationship between grandmothers and their grandchildren. Tracey is a new grandmother and has gained a valuable insight and deep understanding of the unique bond between grandparents and grandchildren. Her book is a colorful picture book illustrated with heartwarming images. It captures the magic and love across generations. Fact: Grandparents and grandchildren have a special bond—one that is very […]

Denny S. Bryce writes historical fiction and is the bestselling author of WILD WOMEN AND THE BLUES. Her next novel, IN THE FACE OF THE SUN, was released in April 2022. Additionally, she is an adjunct professor in the MFA program at Drexel University, a book critic for NPR, and a freelance writer. Articles she’s written have appeared in USA TODAY, FROLIC MEDIA, and HARPER’s BAZAAR. She is also a public relations and marketing professional who spent more than 20 years […]

Rochelle Alers, the bestselling author of over eighty novels with nearly two million copies in print, has been hailed by readers and booksellers alike as one of today’s most prolific and popular African American authors of romance and women’s fiction. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Emma Award, the Vivian Stephens Award for Excellence in Romance Writing, the RT Career Achievement Award and the Zora Neale Hurston Literary Award. She is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., […]

Phyllis R. Dixon is the acclaimed author of Intermission, Forty Acres, and Down Home Blues, which was shortlisted for the Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List by the Texas Library Association. She also is a contributor to the New Tri-State Defender book review column and to Chicken Soup for the African American Woman’s Soul. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she is a former independent bookstore owner, previously worked for the U.S. Treasury Department, and currently serves on several nonprofit boards. She currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee, and can […]